Saturday's Villa Transfer Rumours

Zat Knight is the latest player to talk about the transfer window and says if Villa win tonight in the Intertoto game to help us move towards Uefa cup qualification for the upcoming season, that will give the Villa boss a helping hand.

Zat told the official site:

'If we can qualify for the UEFA Cup that should help the manager bring in new players. Every player who comes to the Premier League wants to play for a team in Europe. So if we can get there in the next two games there's still a month left in the window, so it's definitely going to attract players.' Adding 'This is a massive club with a big history in Europe and the Premier League. Hopefully qualifying for the UEFA Cup would open a few players' eyes and help us attract the bigger names.'

He also says that the addition of Steve Sidwell is a good one and 'if all his summer signings are of that quality we'll all be happy. Everyone can see we've got a small squad and we're trying to add to it. He's taking his time about it and he won't just bring in anybody to make up the numbers. He's trying to bring in quality and that's what we need.'

He also warns that we can't chance our arm again with luck on the injury front saying if we went into the season with a small squad again, the luck will eventually run out.

There isn't much in the way of transfer gossip today,

The Daily Express, amongst others, quote Martin O'Neill over the Gareth Barry saga (enough already!)

'I have never said there is no way back for Gareth. We had a meeting on Thursday to talk about the situation and he reiterated that he would like to go to Liverpool. I have accepted what Gareth has said and his wish to join Liverpool. Whether he would have played is irrelevant now, because ironically he has a foot injury. It is a genuine injury. Gareth has never had a diplomatic injury in his life. He played for me last season with an injury that would have kept most players out for weeks. ' Adding, 'There were discussions between Rick Parry and Randy and we put something to Liverpool on Monday and they have not responded to that. I can’t tell you what Liverpool are thinking, but it would be better for all concerned if it could be concluded one way or the other.'

The Sun say that Villa expect to sign Brad Friedel from Blackburn Rovers next week. The 37-year-old (!!) keeper is apparently set to start an exodus of players. One that appears not to be Villa bound is David Bentley though, MON has admitted bidding and that Rovers rejected the bid. MON is now moving to other targets. As for Friedel, Villa are rumoured to have offered the American a double your money package and the keeper 'shocked Rovers' by putting in a transfer request. The Sun quote club chairman John Williams said: 'It’s an unwelcome situation for us and particularly for Paul, who has been concentrating on other targets. When Brad told us he wanted to leave it was a bolt out of the blue. He only signed his latest contract in February and a replacement keeper hasn’t been on our radar. We are very keen for Brad to stay but to deny him the move he clearly wants after a lengthy stint with the club is difficult.'

Meanwhile it looks like Sunderland are in talks with Spurs right-back Pascal Chimbonda who I must admit, I thought would be a shoe in for us this summer. We need a quality right-back and he is just that isn't he? I know he is a bit mercenary the way he moves around but, well, we need a right-back!!!!!! Various papers say that Sunderland have had a bid of £23million accepted by Spurs for a bunch of players, although which ones actually want to move to the Black Cats is another matter according to other reports. The papers claim the players include, Younes Kaboul, Pascal Chimbonda, Steed Malbranque and Teemu Tainio.

Funny old game!

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